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Chapter 1180 The Artificial Island And The Robots
Chapter 1180 The Artificial Island And The Robots
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We entered the artificial island's dome through the shattered glass ceiling. The first thing we saw as we flew inside was… a large forest, or jungle. It was being isolated from the outside world, and it seemed some of the machines keeping all the vegetation alive were still there.
Especially many little robots keeping the plants healthy to a ridiculous degree where they would overgrow everywhere. There were clearly no more humans here.
"Was this place some sort of greenhouse?" wondered Eleanora. "So many plants everywhere, trees especially… and vines covering even the glass walls…"
"It seems to be the case," nodded Zack. "Careful, there might be special mutants around… we're not completely safe in here."
"Well said, Zack!" nodded Braveblitz. "Don't worry though, as long as we're here there shouldn't be anything that could harm us."
"Don't be too overconfident," I said. "For the moment… Let's try to go to the surface. We'll follow the map I have towards the Teleportation Device."
As we landed over the grass-covered stone and metal floor, we noticed how several areas were completely rusty. There was a dense jungle of several types of plants, colorful flowers and I noticed a couple of small animals. Rats and so on, alongside normal, small insects.
"Well this place seems rather relaxing," said Saphira. "Can't we explore?"
"No, we have to go to the Teleportation Device as quickly as possible," I said. "Let's advance with care."
We had to land because the Teleportation Device was underground, or else I would have preferred to fly over everything.
"Hm, this place seems much more peaceful than whatever is happening outside…" Zack sighed in relief. "Do we even have a view like this in the ship?"
"I doubt so," I said. "And yes, it's quite something…"
"Ooh! There are so many little critters everywhere!" Saphira caught a small little rat who jumped away from her mechanical hand right away. "Oops!"
"Saphira I told you not to… Hm?"
Then I noticed, several mechanical eyes were glaring at us. They were surrounding us, glaring at us in silence. Dozens of small machines, robots that had small, round shapes, perhaps assigned to cleaning duties that somehow remained. Most looked very rusty though.
"Wait." I said. "Don't move."
"Huh?" Braveblitz scanned his surroundings. "Wait a second! We're surrounded by little robots!"
"Yes, it's pretty obvious already!" said Eleanora, sighing.
"Ooh, so cuteee!" Saphira said. "Can I touch them?"
"Hmm… they're small and defenseless," said Hendrick. "I doubt they are much of a threat against us, master."
"I agree…" said Zack. "But they're peculiar, are they NPC?"
I stood there in silence until they began approaching once they realized we weren't dangerous.
"Intruders."
"Please from. Outside world."
"Wow."
"Woah."
"Big metallic. Giants."
"Human? Human."
Their eyes glowed bright red, as they walked closer.
I faced them.
"Who are you all?" I asked them.
They remained in silence for a couple of seconds before some of them answered.
"Cleaning bots."
"We clean."
"Maintain plants."
"Even after. Hundreds of years."
"We work. Hard."
"Working hard. Yes."
"Rusty."
"We. Are rusty."
They were mostly just overly curious, although I could notice they were also… friendly?
"We've come here looking for a Teleportation Device!" said Braveblitz. "Little ones, do you know where it might be?"
"Oohh."
"Oooohhh."
"Big."
"Big uncle."
"Big uncle!"
"Big uncle!"
"Big uncle!"
"Hm?" Braveblitz noticed they all gathered around him lifting their little arms. "Hahaha! Well if you want me to be your uncle, sure!"
They gathered around him for some reason and wouldn't let him go, but the he liked attention so he was happy with that…
"As he said, we need to go to the Teleportation Device," I said. "So we'll get going."
"But you can't."
One of the robots stopped me, he looked a bit different than the rest, slightly taller, his face was cracked open and covered by a huge green leaf, and his only eye left had also a tiny crack.
"And why?"
"…"
He walked towards me. The other robots simply seemed a bit surprised this guy talked. He didn't have a good reputation or something, apparently.
"It's broken. And only us. Can repair. It."
"Hmm… Well, I do have someone that said they can repair it."
"Is that. So?"
"It is missing. Several parts. Only us. Can make. Do you truly think. You can repair it. Just like this?"
"Hm?"
I quickly talked to the Neutonium Mother Core.
"Is that true?"
"I was saying that I could repair it by helping the machine start up again… but if there's several missing pieces, I can't replace them."
"Are you serious…"
"Why don't you help the robots? They all hold a tiny piece of my core. I believe they're interconnected into something bigger."
"Bigger?"
I just want to complete this damn trial, why do I keep getting delayed all the time?
It is as if this trial is constantly trying to teach me something.
Perhaps… the Records of Lost History?
Hm…
Fine, I'll engage for now, but let's do this quickly.
"Alright, so you want us to do something for you in exchange for repairing it?" I asked.
"Yeah I was about to ask that myself," Zack said.
"Yes." The mysterious robot said. "This island. Is in. Danger…"
"Danger?" Saphira asked.
"Can you tell us how and why?" I asked.
"Follow. Me."
The mysterious robot walked through the jungles, moving onwards and expecting us to follow him.
Fine, I guess we can do that for him, just this once.
We followed him, ultimately finding a small house on top of a tree where he climbed.
We went inside as he invited us, the house was quite… small, and it had a lot of tiny little things, trinkets, pieces of equipment, tools and such.
He kept them polished as well, he seemed to be a robot specialized on repair.
"Humans died long ago here." He started immediately. "However. Despite the death of our. Masters. We continued working. Diligently. Plants were taken care of. Life prospered without humans. But they appeared out of nowhere."
"Who?" wondered Eleanora. "Is this some sort of special enemy?"
"Hm." The robot glanced at something he brought over and then placed it over a small wooden table. "Android."
BAAM!
It was the head of what resembled a young woman with short white hair and silver eyes, detached from her body.
There wasn't blood, but circuits in her cut apart neck…
"Android. Dangerous. They come. Claiming to be. Humanity. Kill us. Without reason. We can't fight back. Only hide. Please help. Us. Protect Our New. Home."
We looked at one another in silence.
"So to sum things up these Androids that look like humans are claiming to be humans and killing your kind?" I asked.
"For no reason?" Eleanora added.
The robot nodded.
"For no reason. Well… there is one reason. Reason is. We are obsolete. In their eyes. Useless. In their eyes." He said. "They want to discard…. To discard us. But we grew. We developed. We don't want to. Die. Or be discarded. This island. Is… our home."
"Hmm…"
This is interesting, there's clearly more humans living at the other side of the world, but they're probably not getting here due to the mutants being too dangerous.
But these Androids, they're a completely different problem altogether.
I'm intrigued what's going on in here, honestly.
"Fine, but let's make it quick." I said. "Show us where they are."
"Thank. You So. Much."
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